The present invention relates to a seatback panel.
There is a type of seat comprising a seat cushion and a seatback as a vehicle's (automotive vehicle's) rear seat, in particular, in which the seatback is configured to be selectable between its rising-up position and its falling-down position which the seatback has when falling down from the rising-up position. That is, the seatback serves as a support of a back of a passenger seated on the seat cushion when the seatback has the rising-up position, and the seatback having the falling-down position provides its back-face side as a placing face where baggage or the like can be placed.
It is general that a frame portion of the seatback is composed of a frame and a seatback panel, and the frame is provided at least along a peripheral edge portion of the seatback panel. Since the seatback panel having the rising-up position receives a load from the passenger positioned behind, and when having the falling-down position, the seatback receives another load from the baggage or the like placed of the seatback panel, the sufficient rigidity is required for the seatback.
While the seatback panel having a considerably-large area is made of a metal-made plate material in order to secure the rigidity, a simple flat-shaped panel may lack of the rigidity. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2011-105049 discloses a structure in which many V-shaped bead portions are provided adjacently to each other in a vertical direction in order to improve the rigidity of the seatback panel.
Herein, the weight reduction of the vehicle has been recently desired strongly, so making the thickness of the seatback panel properly thin has been tried. However, it is difficult to ensure the sufficient rigidity by simply making unevenness, such as the bead portion, on the seatback panel in a case where the thickness of the seatback panel is made thin. Accordingly, any other countermeasures have been desired.
In particular, if the rigidity of the seatback panel is insufficient, the seatback panel resiliently deforms easily in its thickness direction. Specifically, when receiving the load from the passenger, the seatback panel having the rising-up position resiliently deforms largely toward its back-face side. Accordingly, the seatback panel resiliently deforms back toward its front-face side as soon as the load from the passenger is released (cancelled). Inversely, in a case where the baggage or the like are placed on the back face of the seatback panel having the falling-down position, the seatback panel resiliently deforms largely toward its front-face side, and the seatback panel resiliently deforms back toward its back-face side as soon as the baggage or the like are removed. Additionally, when the seatback's position is changed between the rising-up position and the falling-down position, there occurs some noise which may be caused by the bending deformation of the seatback panel.